Trever & Krista

20 weeks....almost

2012-02-07T17:08:00.000-08:00

We're halfway there! Halfway to meeting baby #2 that is! The word has been out for a few months now but since we know what to expect this time around we haven't had as much to share. We had an ultrasound right before Christmas because the little booger wouldn't cooperate for us to hear a heartbeat. We did get to see the heartbeat though and Claire got to see the picture on the computer screen. She wanted to hold the baby! I was back to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and there was a nice strong heartbeat so no worries!

I'm finally feeling pretty good. I'm not nearly as tired as I was until about 18 weeks. I'm starting to feel some movement and have had more discomfort in my stomach this go around. The doctor chalks it up to this being my second pregnancy and carrying around a 2 year old doesn't help.

Claire is very excited to be a big sister. She calls this baby "Shout" after a character on one of her favorite tv shows and we've run with it. She's convinced it's a boy and I'm pretty sure she's going to be ticked if it's a girl and if we don't name it shout. She thinks she can touch the baby if she puts her finger in my belly button and likes to give my belly kisses, especially if she bumps in to it. Every morning I tell her to be a good girl and she responds with "be a good mommy. be a good shout"

I go back to the doctor in a couple of weeks and on March 12th we head back for another ultrasound. Hopefully he/she will be cooperative and we can find out if he/she is a he or a she!

Pre-School Screening

2012-02-07T16:44:00.000-08:00

Today was a big day for Claire. She got to go to "Practice School". Most normal people call it pre-school screening but Claire was so excited to go to school that I had to explain to her that it was just for 1 hour and not every day. Plus, we didn't go to a school, we went to a church.

Claire was scheduled at the same time as her friend Alex which worked out nicely since Alex's little brother had a "screening" of his own. Everything was play based and there were about 5 ladies sitting around watching them play and taking notes. There was one girl that played with the kids and encouraged them to try out the different activities.

Some of the activities included identifying animals, colors, shapes and food. She did a good job hopping through the rings, kicking a ball, pedaling the bike and throwing the ball. She struggled a bit with the scissors but we don't let her have scissors so that didn't surprise me. She also did a good job interacting with the other kids, being polite, following directions and asking questions back to the teacher.

Needless to say, Trever and I were both very proud of how well she did. But, we're a little bummed that she most likely won't get in to the public school program. There is a private nursery school in the area that is an option for us and Claire and I might go check it out at the end of the month.

Piglets, Goats & Birthdays...OH MY!

2012-01-29T14:34:00.000-08:00

On January 20th we packed up and headed to Ohio to celebrate some very special birthdays. Friday night we headed out with Aunt Kyla to do some evening chores. Claire was very excited to hold a baby pig!

She really enjoyed the goats too, but we definately don't need any of those at our house.

She and Maddi are best buds! Until one of them has something the other one wants.

The real reason we went out was for Mr. Kempton's 1st birthday! His mommy really went above and beyond with the birthday cake!

And Kempton REALLY got in to his cake! It tasted awesome so I don't blame him at all!

After getting hosed off he got to try out his new toy! Isn't he too stinkin' cute!?!

A snowy weekend

2012-01-29T14:07:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, in early January, we finally had some snow. Claire couldn't have been more excited to play in it! Luckily, Saturday morning the weather was beautiful and it wasn't so cold we didn't want to play with her.

There are lots of pictures on facebook if you want to see more!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-30T07:04:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2011 is now in the books. It has taken me all day to get the pictures up on the blog but for those of you who don't have facebook (if there are any of you out there) here is the run down on our festivities.

Friday afternoon we met up with the Ficklin family at Shagbark golf course in Onarga. We always have a great time with this group. Everyone brings a ~$10 gift and we spend a couple of hours fighting over things like hams, wine, and a telescope. We brought home a blanket and a twelve piece cutting kit (knives, scissors, box cutters, etc). Claire got some kind of text messaging game that keeps her entertained for hours!

Claire bellied up to the bar (because there were cartoons on the tv). Will thought it would be fun to let her try out a fake ID for the first time!

Saturday morning this is how I found Claire sleeping. She slept until about 9 a..m. that day! Her cousins must have tuckered her out the night before!

On Christmas Eve we headed to LeRoy to see the Builta clan. We usually have steak for lunch and mom was trying a new asparagus recipe. Kirk claims he cooks all the time, but I snapped this picture because it's the first time I've ever seen him do anything remotely close to cooking.

After lunch it was time to tear in to the presents, but not before a picture of our baby girl next to the tree!

Claire got a new Minnie Mouse blanket that Grandma made. She loves it and is actually taking a nap under it right now!

Uncle Kirk is ready to throw a party. He got LOTS of booze to stock is liquor cabinet. And a recipe book so he can make some fancy cocktails.

Uncle Kirk also spoiled Claire. He got her some new Minnie Mouse slippers.

And she got a new car seat for her bitty baby from grandma and grandpa.

And then she unwrapped her musical instruments from Uncle Kirk. She's really enjoyed playing them and even snuck her harmonica to Mary's house one day this week.

After naps we headed to grandma great's house for soup and more presents. We did another gift exchange but this group isn't nearly as big or as risque as the Ficklins so there wasn't much stealing. We came home with a 3 pan roaster and some Fannie Mae and Root Deer. Claire decided that Kara was pretty fun to hang out with too!

Christmas morning started pretty early. Not because Claire was anxious to see what Santa brought, but because we had a lot to get done before 9 a.m. church service and a day with the Kuipers.

Santa brought Claire and new ball and bat...

A broom and a dustpan so she can fly like a witch.

And a vet kit so she can take care of her puppies and kitties and mommy and baby shout.

After church we headed to Gammy & papa's house for breakfast and more presents. Kempton is SO CLOSE to walking. He really likes to dance with Santa too!

Claire and Kempton starting to unwrap mommy's presents!

Claire loves her big cousin Caisey!

and her Simba stuffed animal from Gammy & Papa Kuip.

Kempton was happy with a box and some hangers.

Just when we thought we were all done with presents, out come some pink pedal tractors for the little girls!

Then it was time to attempt naps in the new sleeping bags. The eventually did both fall asleep but neither one of them was in their sleeping bag.

Before we left, the kids had to all pose in the super girl and spider man jammies! This went over much better than the attempted homemade jammies last year!

December

2011-12-17T17:26:00.000-08:00

I know...I know...it's been a while. But guess what. Life has slowed down. The camera barely comes out of the closet these days but I'm sure we'll make up for that come Christmas.

A few weeks ago we put the Christmas tree up. Congo enjoys playin around the base of the tree and picking off the ornaments. While Congo was curled up under the tree, I tried to get a picture of Claire with him.

And this, like most of Claire's good intentions with the cat, is how it ended. Congo loves her "favorite kitty" but Congo doesn't always love to be carried around by his legs or tail.

cousins

2011-10-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

Maddi, Kempton & Kyla came to visit last weekend. We didn't get to see much of them since we headed to St. Louis on Saturday, but the kids did get to play a little bit Friday night.

Boo at the Zoo

2011-10-29T06:23:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we roadtripped to St. Louis to hang out with some of Trever's childhood friends. Our group has definately changed since I entered the picture. It wasn't so long ago we were looking for alcohol that came in plastic bottles for our float trips down the river. Now there are kids in the picture and we go to the zoo and the guys drink the cheapest beer they can find so they can afford to take their kids to the zoo!

You all know Claire....

Meet Anna Wiltz....

And Caleb May.

Anna's mommy and daddy were the subject of my photography as we waited for Boo at the zoo to start.

And Claire....I mean Minnie Mouse...ran off a lot of energy while we waited.

We took off to see the animals in the wagon.

Claire got to pet a lizard with "just ONE finger" along his tail.

And she made daddy wear her ears for a while.

But on the way home she was tuckered out. Could have had something to do with the 30 minute nap that she had that day.

Anna must have enjoyed herself too!

A trip to the punkin patch

2011-10-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Rader Family Farms with Grandma Marge. Claire will tell you that her favorite part of her day was the animals. She has even warmed up to the pigs!

She also enjoyed playing in the corn. They have transformed 2 government bins in to giant playbox filled with corn. They cut windows in the side so the big kids could watch from the outside.

Then she went on a catepillar ride. These were made out of plastic barrels with wheels pulled by a lawnmower.

They also have a huge slide that is made out of a huge field tile. Mommy walked up the hill with Claire but she didn't need my help to go down!

She also enjoyed the straw bale castle.

And the miniature soybean maze for the little tikes.

She also played for quite a while in the straw bale obstacle course. And LOVED jumping off the loading shoot in to the straw.

We jumped on the giant pillow. We lucked out that there were a lot of little kids and moms on with us instead of big crazy kids. But we still had a hard time staying on our feet!

Before we left we got our 2nd annual picture to see how much Claire had grown. She was exhausted by this point so it was a bit of a challenge.

And a family picture with the old blue truck.

Then, before we left, we ran in to a giant spider! Claire and daddy thought it was pretty cool!

As expected, we had a great time! We'll be back next year!

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Hunter!

2011-10-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

We celebrated with one of our favorite families last weekend! Baby Hunter turned 1!

Hunter had a pretty cool farm animal cake and got some pretty cool presents.

And the kids at the party got presents from Hunter! Jeremiah, Andrew and Claire enjoyed decorating the driveway with their sidewalk chalk!

It took a while but Hunter finally got in to his cake! He sat like such a little angel the entire time! Unlike when Claire turned 1 and wouldn't sit still long enough to see what kind of presents she got!

Hunter shared some hugs with Claire before we headed out for the night!

A little bit of life

2011-10-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks of been my "busy" season at work. All 10,372 acres that we grew this year had to be inspected prior to being harvested. I walk through the fields looking for little guys like this who don't quite look like all of the other soybean plants in the field. I have to check to make sure that there aren't too many pesky little off types out there.

I came across this interesting old crib on one of my trips to Vermillion County.

Claire re-discovered her apron that Grandma Great made for her this week. She loved cooking me dinner in it.

Of course she didn't wear it to help me make her real dinner. She loves helping make scrambled eggs and cereal.

Friday night I let Claire stay up until Trever got home. He helped brush her teeth, but since he isn't home for this most nights he didn't know that Claire HATES her Dora tooth brush. He found out though! And I laughed really hard!!!

Saturday is game day! Claire has to wear her sunglasses in the car!

She also enjoys running off with any spare change that gets left around. I'm hoping that this means she's going to end up with lots of it some day!

We had a rough week around our house this week...including Claire climbing out of her crib one night. So, yesterday her crib got transformed in to a toddler bed. She slept in it last night but was zonked when we got home. This morning she knocked on her door so we would let her out. Nap time was a bit of a challenge, but she stayed in her bed and eventually fell asleep.

After nap, Claire and daddy watched one of daddy's all time favorite movies, The Lion King. She didn't quite sit still for the whole movie and daddy wasn't quite sure how to respond when she asked "what happened to his daddy?" (when Mufasa dies)

We also have been working on going potty today. We had an accident at nap time (my fault, I should have put a diaper on her), one accident when she was outside playing with daddy, and one time she peed through her panties while sitting on the potty...but at least she was sitting on the potty....next step teach her to pull her pants down!

A special wedding

2011-10-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

On October 1st Trever had a 1st of his own. He "officiated" his first wedding. He will tell you he was the master of ceremonies, and I guess that works, but he did put together a pretty nice service.

Kendra & Zach Monk both wanted a little bit of religion in their wedding ceremony even though neither one of them have a church family of their own. Trever can't legally marry anyone since he is not an ordained minister. Luckily, Zach and Kendra know one of the Iroquois County Judges and he made the marriage official. The county clerk played the piano so the Judge delivered the signed marriage license the same day!

Zach is the daughter of one of my best teacher friends, Barb. She picked a pretty cool mother son song for their dance and even sang along!

We enjoyed being part of Zach and Kendra's big day!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Great!

2011-10-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

My Grandma, and Claire's Grandma Great, turne 85 this month! We had dinner at mom & dad's for her birthday. We were short a few family members but it was nice to have a Sunday dinner. They don't happen as often as they use to.

Claire was so excited to help Grandma Great blow out her candles since she couldn't help Hunter blow out his. But then she ended up falling asleep during dinner. Since Claire always gets what Claire wants, she got her own candle to blow out after her nap.
And she even got a present from her 2nd Cousin Kim.

I miss my daddy

2011-09-06T19:33:00.000-07:00

That was the theme of the night. Claire was full of tears tonight and anytime she didn't get her way she would burst in to tears and say "I miss my daddy". She absolutely refused to eat dinner. So, instead of fighting with her I told her to go play. I had just put a pair of dora panties on her and she was bound and determined that the cat needed a pair of panties too. When I informed Claire that was a bad idea, there were more tears. Since the cat wasn't an option, she decided to put on some more panties. In the end she had 4 pairs of panties on at once. And about 2 minutes after this picture was taken she peed through three sets of panties. The 4th pair was still dry because she had one of the leg holes around her waist.

Cutting Edge Open House

2011-09-06T17:18:00.000-07:00

Another weekend another roadtrip. This time to Tradersville, Ohio for the Cutting Edge Show Pig Sires Open House. Or, in other words, we went to visit our nieces and nephew. But, while we were out there, they threw us a BIG party and Claire partially overcame her fear of pigs!

Claire and Maddi each had their own whips....Claire called them lips.
Kempton...well, he just kind of got passed around. He is such a good little guy! And boy is he happy!

And, Claire is a bit silly sometimes.

And Maddi has 4 goats!

Sunday night the girls got all dressed up so they could...splash in puddles.

Uncle Ron gave a speech.

And the girls played in a brand new trailer!

Some sibling love...

And a picture of a SMILING Maddi!

Caisey & Maddi getting ready for the show ring.

Caisey carrying Claire because "the pigs are scared"

now she's getting a little more in to it!!!

cheesin for the camer before along ride home.

And crashed after a BIG weekend!

A little vacation

2011-08-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I got a phone call from Wyndam Resorts offering me a 4 day-3 night vacation for around $150 bucks. I told them I wanted to discuss it with my hubby and they dropped the price some more. Being married to a salesman and knowing that the girl on the other end was being paid on commission, I jumped. 3 nights hotel, a $75 American Express card & a voucher for another hotel stay and all I had to do was sit through a 2 hour time share presentation. DEAL! Oh wait, we'll throw in a second package for half price.....DEAL again! Can you say SUCKER!

We actually enjoyed the time share presentation, and no we didn't buy one...but thanks to Big Al, it is now on our list of possible future investments when the insurance business makes us rich. But most importantly, it FORCED us to take a family vacation. Something that neither one of us are use to...unless there is some kind of livestock involved...and wouldn't you know it, there was.

We left Saturday morning and made it to Mazon before Claire said "I GOTTA GO POTTY!" This isn't a normal thing for her, but we pulled off at Casey's and sure enough she went potty! We only changed one wet diaper the entire trip up! The next stop was in Ottawa for some lunch and gourmet popcorn. Trever and I shared some strawberry shortcake popcorn and Claire had some plain old borning stuff.

We made it to the Wisconsin Dells around 5, checked in to our hotel and did a little swimming. Our hotel pool was perfect for Claire! There were indoor and outdoor pools but we stayed inside for the most part since the outside pools were FREEZING! Claire really enjoyed the little slides and the castle!

We hit up a few of the local eateries...including a vegan restaurant where I gave tofu a try...enjoyed the outlet mall and the Original Wisconsin Ducks.

Claire like's to refer to them as the car boats and she was a good sport while we were riding them but complained about them being a little loud.

We stopped at this place for lunch called the Cheese House. Being in Wisconsin, I expected it to be Grilled Cheese, Cheese sticks, cheese burgers, cheesecake....CHEESE....there was a little cheese on the menu....but that was the ONLY animal product on the menu. Little did I know that this cute little restaurant with pretty flowers was a vegan/gluten free restaurant.

After naps for Claire & mommy, we hit the pool again. Daddy even took Claire down the big slide. After daddy went to the room, Claire got a little gutsy and decided to go down the slide like the big kids....face first.

Daddy is going to shoot me for posting this picture but I love it!

Monday night Claire decided we needed to go to a pirate restaurant. Turns out it was a very expensive "seafood" buffet. I'm talking $20 for fish sticks.

When were packing up Tuesday morning Claire thought it would be fun to dress up in some of mommy's things. She kept saying "no pictures, no pictures"

We had a really good time. And we even made a stop at a bull stud on the way home.

Kelly & Will

2011-08-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

About 6 weeks ago, Trever's cousin, Kelly, married a super cool guy, Will. We had a blast! Claire stayed at Mary's house all night and Trever & I stayed in Rantoul for the night so we could enjoy ourselves and not have to drive home! I took tons of pictures, most of which were already posted on facebook, but this one is my favorite from the night!

Swimming lessons

2011-07-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

Claire & Alex started swimming lessons this week. They are warming up to the idea of following directions and they LOVE the frog slide!

A family reunion

2011-07-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the bi-annual Monroe-Read Family reunion. We head to Milwaukee Friday afternoon and had a nice time hanging out with my mom's extended family. We had dinner at Carrabas and stopped at a fun little market called Brennan's where we picked up some local wines and beers.

Saturday morning we met the Waterworth family at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Everyone had a good time and it was nice to catch up with Dani, Chris & Abby.

They had lots of animals....including 2 elephants.

Peacocks that wandered around free.

And monkeys.....I mean Abby & Claire in front of the camels.

Then we went back to the hotel for naps and a little pinata action. To celebrate Lucille's 80th birthday, her niece made her a pinata that looked strikingly like her!

We had dinner as a family and then headed back to the hotel where a wild game of picture telephone took place in the hotel lobby.

Memphis

2011-07-13T18:38:00.000-07:00

So, not only will blogger not let me publish my post. It also won't let me rearrange my pictures. So, these are in a crazy order.

The first weekend of July, Trever and I headed south for the summer meeting of Family Heritage. We left Friday after work and spent the night in Marion, IL. Then we got up and headed the rest of the way to Memphis Saturday morning.

The last night we were there we visited Graceland. Here I am with a picture of "The King" listening to my audio tour of his home.

And playing a little guitar

On the 4th of July we headed to Canale Farms which is a horse farm that specializes in company picnics. Trever thought he'd show the girls who kept falling off the ladder that it wasn't as hard as it looked....but it was.

Sunday night we went to a Memphis Redbirds game. The are a AAA team for the cardinals. While we were there, there was a shooting at the hotel across the street. CSI even showed up!

Saturday night we had some AMAZING ribs at Blues City Cafe. We also tried some shrimp and catfish.

This is Trever and his friend Katie having breakfast at Cockadoos. Trever had a BBQ omlet.

And a picture of the two of us. Even though I am a little blurry!

At Canale Farms they had a tether ball set up. I totally kicked Trever's butt at it! I had LOTS of training on the blacktop at Bellflower Elementary.

A Mickey Party!

2011-07-10T17:11:00.000-07:00

I have lots of pictures to post! I'm going to start with Claire's birthday party!

We planned Claire's party for the weekend after her birthday. We decided months ago that we would have a Mickey party since Claire is a HUGE fan of Mickey Mouse Club House. Daddy also had big plans for the cake and, as you can see below, he out did himself!

But as much as we had planned and wanted everything perfect for Claire's big party, we could stop Claire from feeling yucky. She ran a pretty good fever most of the day and spent a good portion of the day in bed or clingy to mommy.

She got lots of really great presents. Including a tricycle with all of the bells and whistles. We let her "unwrap" that and her sandbox early with the hopes it would cheer her up.

Then we had pizza! Pizza with black olives is typically Claire's favorite food, so that's what we served at her party! We kept with the Mickey Mouse theme on the pizza too.

Claire got a new show shirt from Aunt Kyla, Uncle Ron, Caisey, Maddi & Kempton.

And a little magnadoodle from Grandma & Grandpa.

We woke her up to blow out her candles. As you can see she wasn't too in to it.

But the good news is, the day after her birthday it was like she was seeing her presents for the first time! She was soo excited and felt sooo much better! We're still not sure what the deal was, but luckily it was short lived! Here is Claire with all of her loot!

A Day at the Zoo

2011-06-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we met our friends the McIntyres for a day of family fun! We met at LaGondola for an early lunch and then headed to Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington!

Here is our crew....

Eden, Claire, Harper, Lydia & Gavin. (Claire just said "those are my friends")

Claire posed for a picture with the Tiger.

And they all acted like monkeys!

But the highlight for Claire was definately the Merry go Round!

They also have a wonderful playground and splash park at Miller Park!

Daddy & his little girl

Our baby girl is 2!

2011-06-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

Blogger is not my friend these days....here is a post from about 2 weeks ago. I am trying to post another one, but not having much luck.

Claire had a very big birthday weekend! We've been on the go a lot this past week, and the weekend was no exception.

Saturday morning Claire woke up on her own, but she didn't know mommy was going to catch her sleepiness on camera.

After a little cuddling and cartoons, daddy made Claire a special birthday breakfast. Claire was less than enthused when we set her in her chair.

But she got excited when she found out she got cinnamon rolls from a can! Or maybe she was laughing at daddy's singing!

Doesn't she look so proud of her self and soooo grown up!

She did a really good job blowing out the candles until her nose got a little too close to the flame.

She wasn't a big fan of the cinnamon rolls and requested a banana instead.

Saturday afternoon we headed to Onarga to celebrate the wedding shower of Trever's cousin, Kelly.

I tried to get a picture of Claire and Maddi together but didn't have much luck. This is a good picture of Claire! :)

The bride-to-be!

When we got home Claire wanted to help daddy with chores. Since her dress was already a mess from her snack at the shower, and it was from a garage sale, I let her wear it outside.

On Sunday we tried to take a few more pictures between church, breakfast with Maddi & Kempton, and a shower for Miss Cierra.

But after all of that, Claire was soooooo sleepy that she put herself in time out.

And finally, after a full weekend of parties for everyone else, we got around to unwrapping Claire's presents from mommy & daddy!

She got a diaper bag with bottles, powder, burp rag & diaper for her babies, a charm for her bracelet, a book and a big bubble wand!

And at her 2 year check up last week she weight 29 pounds and was 36 inches tall.

Claire's antics!

2011-05-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Eggs EVERYWHERE

2011-04-24T18:22:00.000-07:00

Claire is completely Eastered out. After 3 days of cousins, 4 easter egg hunts and more candy than you can shake a stick at, this girl woke up with a nasty cough this morning. I think she's had enough! But she sure was cute doing it all!

Claire spent Wednesday & Thursday with Grandma and Papa Wayne. Thursday night we picked up a very special visitor. Claire talked about Caisey the whole trip, but as soon as we picked her up, her tune changed. She gave Caisey the stink eye for a while. But, come Friday morning, she was excited to "wake saysey up".

Friday afternoon Claire went with the kids from Mary's to the Piper City nursing home for an Easter egg hunt. They hunted inside because of the weather, but she brougth home candy nonetheless.

Saturday we joined Maddison & Gammy for the Onarga Woman's Club Easter Egg hunt. It was a quick hunt but the girls came out with lots of gum and chocolate! They had fun running around and Gammy & Daddy let their true competitive colors show. The apple must not fall too far from the tree because Claire was picking up two eggs at ta time.

Daddy helped her open them and find all the candy!

Claire spent the rest of Saturday at Gammy and Papa's house with her cousins. We went back over around supper time so we could hang out with this super cute little guy!

He doesn't get much attention with all the girls around, but Kempton was really posing for Aunt Krista during the egg hunt.

The big kids and the little girls each had an egg hunt and everyone came home with some pretty good loot!

And I took lots of pictures.

Sunday we got up early and headed to church. Trever and his Sunday school kids put on a nice Sunrise Service. We had breakfast and then headed to Onarga for another church service. Then we tried really hard to get a picture of 4 kids all looking at the same camera at the same time. A smile on 4 faces would have been nice but that was asking a lot.

Claire looks a little sad in this picture, but I think it's a super cute picture with her cousin Caisey!

This is what happens when you put a 14 year old, 2 year old, almost 2 year old and a 3+ month old together in one picture.

Then you try something different.

When you take out the toddlers the quality of the pictures improves! Isn't my niece pretty!?! We finally made it home so Claire could see what the Easter bunny left at her house! She got so many goodies that the Easter bunny could have forgotten to stop at home and she wouldn't have missed him. After chores, mommy cracked out some new jammies that have been waiting for Claire to grow in to them. I think I almost waited to long, but aren't the adorable!

Where have we been?

2011-04-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted and I haven't taken very many pictures lately. Here are a few to get you up to date. Claire LOVES her kitty and LOVES her Elmo Jammies. What she doesn't love is when Congo fights back. The poor girl deserves every bite and scratch she gets, and she sure has a lot of them. Claire got her first bandaid last week (that wasn't for a shot). I'm not really sure what happened but she had a cut by her toe nail that wouldn't stop bleeding (probably from Congo). She didn't think much of the bandaid either. She really likes to CHEESE for the camera and then have mommy show it to her. Frida night we celebrated my 30th birthday at Jupiters. Joey took a few pictures and if anyone else has some, I'd love a copy! This was at the end of the night with my wonderful husband! Claire spent all night with Miss Mary so mommy and daddy didn't have to be responsible! Today we celebrated Easter with the Builtas and Reads. Papa Wayne even hid some eggs for Claire. Mommy tried to take some good pictures in one of her 3 pretty Easter dresses. These are the best I got!

Free to a good home....

2011-03-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

The night started just fine...with presents from Great Aunt Carol.

And she almost smiled for pictures.

And then, mommy made cheesy noodles (aka tortellini) for dinner. And this is what happened.

And it lasted for a LONG time....

So mommy did this....

And everyone was happy again.

Ok...so Claire didn't drink that, but I'm pretty sure the above smile is the only one I've seen all night. Except maybe when she saw her daddy walk in the door. She even cried for daddy tonight. Now she's bringing daddy her chore boots and she thinks she's going to see the cows at 8:36 p.m. We'll see how that goes.

Meet Kempton

2011-03-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a little meet and great for our nephew Kempton. Kyla and the kids came back for the weekend so what better time to introduce the little guy to everyone!

Great Papa was the first one there. He and Kempton got along great!
Kempton was giving out lots of smiles! He seemed pretty content in Cousin Kent's arms!

Claire wanted to hold the baby, but that doesn't last very long. When she's done, she's DONE!

Tonight when I got the camera out, Claire thought she needed her picture taken, so here she is!

Trever's Vegas/Utah 2011

2011-03-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I learned that I had won a trip to Vegas through work. It was a working vacation, but it was a blast.

Last Saturday, Krista and Claire drove me to Chenoa, where I carpooled with a coworker to Midway airport. After an early Sunday morning flight, we were picked up by a limo and taken to The Paris Hotel. We had an amazing lunch, and were off to see the sights on the strip. That evening we had appitizers in the hotel suite, and went to the Peppermill lounge for drinks.

On Monday we were in meetings until about 1 pm, and had more free time that afternoon. Monday night we ate at Todd English's Olives, one of the premier restaruants in Vegas overlooking the Bellagio Fountains.

Tuesday morning we had another brief meeting, and continued to check out all the various shops, casinos, and shows around the city. That night, we had tickets Human Nature. They were an unbelivable Motown group and put on a great show.

After the show, we hopped in a cab and went to the VooDoo Lounge at the Rio. It is a rooftop nightclub 50 stories up. From here you can see the entire city, and it is quite a site.

Wednesday morning we got our rental cars and drove to Cedar City, UT to meet up with our agents from the western states. The drive was beautiful, and We were surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains while we worked the rest of the week.

Sunday morning, we drove back to Vegas and caught our flights back home. It was an amazing trip, but I was so excited to see my girls when I got home. I hope to take them with me next time!

Claire's 1st Haircut

2011-02-24T17:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, February 23rd, we took Claire to On Stage in Onarga for her very first haircut. Here is the before picture...
Claire did really well, with a little help from daddy. She made herself right at home until Ms. Heather tried to get her up in the chair. She wasn't too sure what to think but kept the whining to a minimum during the whole process.

She liked to look at herself in the mirror and watched as Ms. Gwen cut another ladies hair.

She didn't get much cut off, but she looks a lot more even now. She still has a mullet because she's apparently inherited Uncle Kirky's "reclining" hair line. Hopefully things will start to even out soon.

It's not much of an after picture, but she was sure proud of herself!

Daddy's story is that this morning when Ms. Cierra asked Claire about her haircut, Claire whipped her hat off and shook her head like a super model!

A Saturday at Home

2011-02-14T17:07:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had zero plans except for church on Sunday. That meant Claire had to help daddy do chores.

She got to play in the snow.

Daddy taught her how to slide down a snow drift.

She helped mommy bake cookies, and licked the beaters.

She put her Valentine's day money from Aunt Jeanie & Uncle Steve in her piggy bank. This is one of her all time favorite activities (although the look on her face doesn't prove it)

And she checked on her cookies!

Kempton Robert

2011-02-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we traveled to Ohio to meet our first nephew, Kempton Robert. He was born January 17th and it just about killed me to have to wait 3 weeks to meet him. He seems to be a pretty good baby, but he really doesn't stand a chance with a 2 year old sister and his cousin Claire running the show! :)

Aunt Krista had a good time surfing the clearance racks last fall when I found out Baby D was going to be a boy! Between my shopping sprees and some of his great neighbors and friends in Ohio, this is going to be a well dressed little boy! We dressed him up for a photo shoot in his preppy Ralph Lauren outfit!

One of Kempton's Great Aunts made him these cute shoes.

Maddi is a pretty big fan of her little brother, but Claire wasn't quite so in to him. In fact, she was VERY unhappy that her daddy picked up the baby Friday night. She's quite the daddy's girl and wouldn't even sit on his lap that night!

Kempton did a lot of sleeping, but when he was awake he was WIDE awake and a pretty good sport for the camera.

Uncle Trever wasn't sure what to think about a little boy. He's use to lots of little girl things, and even gave Claire & Maddison pedicures while we were out there. He figured things out pretty quickly though.

Sunday morning we all beat Maddison out of bed. Claire thought it would be fun to wake her up.

After a short wrestling match they were back to playing hard together. They played so hard that Claire fell asleep less than 5 miles down the road on our way home.

Kempton got a very special present from Aunt Krista at Christmas. He had to model it for me Sunday morning.

Claire started to warm up to Kempton about the time we were ready to leave. She would say "I hold" but it didn't last very long before she would say "All done" and let go.

Maddison was a little more in to holding her little brother. But it didn't last very long either.

And of course I had my share of snuggle time as well! After all, Kempton's Auntie is Awesome!

Happy 90th Birthday, Great Papa

2011-01-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

Claire's Great Papa Kuipers, and her namesake, turned 90 on December 30th. We celebrated yesterday with an open house at the church.

The cake looked awesome and every last bit of it was edible.
The preacher caught Claire drawing on the wall with a crayon so she let us use some of this newsprint. Claire has been addicted to tracing her hand on paper thanks to Papa Wayne, so when we told her to lay down and we'd trace her whole body she laid SO STILL! She thought it was so cool that she tore it in to confetti!

Grandpa Kuipers with his birthday cake. Not too shabby for 90!

4 generations of Kuipers.

He had a very nice turn out during the 2 hour open house.

And Claire slept for about an hour and a half of it. That's her on the floor covered by daddy's coat.

And a picture of my good lookin' husband.

Viva a Miami

2011-01-01T19:37:00.000-08:00

This past week we headed to Miami, Florida with Trever's company. Family Heritage has two national meetings per year that agents can earn for themself and their spouse. It was a good experience for us and our first vacation since our honeymoon.

The first night we arrived in time to clean up and head to the awards banquet. They recognized many of the high rollers in the company and we got to meet lots of new people.

On Tuesday, Trever was in meetings until 5 p.m. I went for a walk around our hotel and then headed to the spa. I got a massage and a facial and then headed back to the room for a nap and to get ready for our dinner cruise.

The group we were with had two cruise ships for the evening. We got all dressed up and had a great dinner and did a little dancing. It was a little chilly to be out on the deck, but we still enjoyed the view.

On Wednesday we headed to Cardon Park Beach. We had the entire day to just relax on the beach. They grilled out and had all the beer and pop you could drink. There were a few games of volleyball but for the most part we just relaxed. The temperature was in the 60s but to me that was perfect. I don't mind wearing a sweatshirt to the beach!

After our day at the beach was the part of the trip I was dreading the most...the Pirates of Caribbean costume party. Some people went all out and others not so much. We had gone to Good Will to come up with our costumes, but lots of people had professional costumes. Here we are with Nikki, Trever's friend from Sales School, Howard who is the head honcho of Family Heritage, and Kris, Nikki's husband.
This is Trever's crew. It's only a portion of them, but all that were in attendance. Michelle, Kevin, me, Michael, Trever & Roen.

On Thursday we walked to Subway for Breakfast and then headed to the Everglades for an airboat tour.

At the park where we got our tour there were over 200 "pet" alligators. I'm not convinced this one was alive.

After the Everglades we did a little shopping at an outdoor mall area near our hotel. For dinner there was a Tapas party. We had some pretty good food. There was gazpacho (sp?) or cold soup in a shot glass, shrimp, potato salad, roasted vegetables, greek chicken, and some rice and seafood concotion.

After dinner we took a bus to South Beach. It was an experience that we had never had before, but it was enjoyable. We walked past tons of restaurants, all of them begging you to come in. We went to three bars. Fat Tuesdays was pretty low key and was playing some pretty good music. Then we went to Mango's where they had girls and guys dancing on the bar and a much bigger crowd. We also stopped at the Clevelander but didn't stay long. We got on the midnight bus back to the hotel so we could head to the airport early Friday morning.

We had a good time but we were both ready to be home. I have already put a trip to Memphis in July and San Antonio in December on my calendar!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

We all came away from Christmas extremely spoiled! We started with a three day work week, which is always nice, and Trever had a great week of sales to boot! That will help pay all of those hefty Christmas credit card bills!

We started our gift giving on the 23rd, celebrating with the Kuipers portion of the family. Claire looked awfully cute and we posed a few pictures in front of one of Gammy's many Christmas trees.
Claire got tons of toys, but she still goes back to her books. She got a couple of coloring books which were a big hit!

Ron and Caisey tend to just sit back and take it all in.

The little girls got new slippers for Christmas. Claire has been wearing hers most of the day today. They are pretty darn cute.

Not very often is there a picture with me in it. Besides having a bad hair day, it actually looks like Claire likes me in this picture!

I also have a hard time getting a picture of Maddison when she is smiling. This is kind of crooked, goofy little smile, but it is a smile!

Caisey got new undies for Christmas. Uncle Trever thought it would be funny to take a picture and send it to Caisey's boyfriend. She was pretty embarassed!

But I think she was even more embarassed by the pajama pants I made her. I made the three girls matching pj pants. The two little girl's pants turned out ok, but Caisey's were a little on the big side. From what I hear, Kyla has been wearing them and she is having a baby sometime in the next month!

The only picture I have of all three girls. Modeling their pants!

The little girls got wagons for Christmas from Gammy & Papa. They were a big hit!

They preferred to share a wagon! Their is plenty of room for both of them, and their drinks, inside.

On Christmas Eve we headed to LeRoy for the Builta Christmas festivities. Claire wore her Santa dress and looked SOOOO pretty.

She got lots of goodies and loved on one of the many babies she got as gifts.

After fighting a nap, and waking up on the wrong side of the bed, we headed to Great Grandma Builta's house. Claire helped Great Grandma unwrap her presents.

And she helped Kara unwrap her present...

and gave baby Jesus kisses.

We took the annual family pictures. Aunt Carol was home from Florida for a few days. Here she is with a portion of her nieces and nephews.

Two good pictures of Claire and me in two days. It's hard to believe! Even if Kirk did crop Trever out when he was taking the picture!

Another great picture of Claire Bear!

Our immediate family...

Kirk was apparently trying to be "artistic" when he took this one of Kenneth, Kathi & Kara. I just like the goofy look on Kathi's face!

And a picture of Grandma Builta with 3 of her 5 grandkids and Claire!

Four generations of Builtas.

Christmas morning we slept in a little bit and then opened presents at home. Claire got her very own kitchen. She has been cooking for us all day today!

This was her 3rd stocking and she finally figured out what to do with it!

Santa brought her a rocking horse. She wasn't too thrilled about it Christmas morning. She would make it neigh and gallop, but she did not want any part of riding it.

A cheesy Christmas morning picture with daddy.

After we unwrapped the presents at home, we headed to Grandma Ficklin's house.

We attempted a family picture, but you can tell how well that worked out!

We did get a good picture of Will, Kelly, Janet & Russ.

Claire also enjoyed her new sunglasses from Uncle Russ & Aunt Janet. She's been wearing them off and on today too!

Cousin Kelly looked pretty cute too!

Christmas afternoon we headed back to Gammy & Papa's for naps before dinner. About dinner time, Great Papa Kuipers, Dee & Marshall came to play. Great Papa got a new snow shovel for Christmas. The girls thought it was a toy and pulled each other on it.

Great Papa also got a balance bracelet. He had read about these bracelets in one of his magazines, and at 90 years old, he sometimes gets a little unsteady. So, we got him a balance bracelet, which seems to be all the rage with people who have never had balance issues! Trever took the test to see if the bracelet worked.

Great Papa also gives some of the best gifts. He got this pretty purple kitty for Claire for Christmas. I have to say, it is the one gift that she has played with over and over again!

After dinner we played some heated hands of Euchre. Claire hopped up to play like she knew what she was doing.

We really did have a great week of Christmas celebrations. It did feel a little rushed this year since Trever and I left for Miami the day after Christmas, but we were glad we got to spend time with our entire family!

Christmas Cookies

2010-12-11T19:24:00.000-08:00

Claire, Caisey, Trever and I baked and decorated too many cookies tonight. Now, 9:41, she is still going strong!

Here are a few pictures from the evening. I particularly like the one where she is sneaking frosting off an already frosted cookie!

Half Birthday

2010-12-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

Today is Claire's half birthday! She's 18 months old and halfway to another birthday party! We've had a wonderful day! It all started yesterday with a BIG day of Christmas shopping and picking up a very special visitor for the weekend.

Yesterday we left home about 8 a.m. and got home about 10:15 p.m! Claire was such a good shopper! We shopped with Gammy, Grandma, Daddy, Aunt Ria and Caisey! We got lots of shopping done, met Santa Clause and picked Caisey up to spend the whole weekend with us!

This morning we slept in. We got to play for a while before Trever headed to Rantoul to work for a while. Then it was times for a girls day. We cleaned, wrapped presents, and started making Christmas cookies.

Trever brought Papa Johns home for dinner and is out doing chores. Claire is currently hiding in the corner with my cell phone and Caisey and I are watching Next Great Baker. When Trever gets in from chores it will be time to bake our cookies!

And yes, we are still in our pajamas at 5:43 p.m.

Now, about Claire at 18 months...

she has started stealing Trevers change and likes to put it in her piggy bank.
pulls the chair up to the kitchen counter to help
says she wants santa to bring her "nemenems" (M&Ms)
wraps up her baby in dish towels (apparently Papa Wayne taught her that)
says "smime" (excuse me) and covers her mouth when she burps
has started saying Mommmeeeeeeee instead of mama.
fist bumps everybody, including complete strangers and the cat

Thanksgiving

2010-12-02T18:03:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone and a week later I'm finally getting around to loading pictures. We enjoyed spending time with both sides of our family and had such a great long weekend!

Maddison spent a few extra days in Illinois and Gammy & Papa brought her over for a play date.

The girls had so much fun playing together! They even played ring around the rosey with Gammy!

And then they put on matching pjs and shared a banana.

Thanksgiving morning we headed to Greg & Kathy's so the girls could get some play time in. Maddison wasn't too sure what to think about Great Papa Kuipers, but Claire knows who to keep on her good side!

Of course there were lots of attempts to get agood picture for a Christmas card.

Claire thinks the Great-Grandma Ficklin's cane is pretty cool.

And attempts to get good pictures of the girls. This is the only picture where bothe girls are smiling and almost looking at the camera. So what if they have their fingers up their nose!

After lunch we head to LeRoy. There wasn't a lot of excitement with the Builta side of the family. We just hung out and ate some more!

On Friday, we worked around the house. Trever put up the Christmas tree and waited for Claire to get up from her nap to check it out. She thought it was pretty cool and has been pretty good about leaving it alone. However, I did catch her driving a choo choo train ornament across the kitchen floor.

Friday night we went to Champaign and met the Read side of the family for dinner. Claire really wanted to take Congo with us, but we left him home. That's pretty much the extent of our holiday weekend. We have a big weekend ahead of us. Claire will be spending a lot of quality time with Papa Wayne while Trever and I take 2 heifers to a sale in Chillicothe. Keep your fingers crossed that we sell the heifers for big bucks and that Claire doesn't need very many diaper changes!

17 months

2010-11-14T14:52:00.000-08:00

This past week we went to Maroa and watched our niece, Caisey, play basketball. It was her 8th grade night and she and her parents were introduced before the game.

We didn't get very many good pictures since we were trying not to use the flash. Caisey started the game and played the majority of it.

This week Claire also turned 17 months old. We are a few days late with pictures, but at least we got one with a smile.

And one proving that the terrible twos aren't very far away.

At 17 months Claire...

Loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the Hotdog song
Talks about babies and carries her doll around the house. She's also been seen trying to feed her baby cherios and her sippy cup.
Climbs in the bathtub.
Likes to sit on her potty chair but that's all she does.
Reads lots of books. She likes to say "what's that?" and have us tell her. Or she will point to the characters when we name them.
Grandma Marge has taught her what to say in response to "I-L-L" and it sounds a little like "I-I-I"
She pulls the kitchen chair up to the counter to help make supper
Pretends to talk on the phone but refuses to talk on the phone for real
Pretends lots of things are telephones and holds them up to her ear.
Holds things up to her eyes (phones, books, sunglasses) and says "CHEESE"

Trick-or-Treat

2010-11-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

Claire had her first Trick-or-Treat experience this past weekend. She was the cutest little lion in town! She held daddy's hand as we walked from Ms. Mary's house, to Ms. Roberta's to Ms. Sandy's.

She didn't care too much about the candy but liked to walk right in the door and make herself at home! She really enjoyed her cheetos from Ms. Sandy's house!

After a couple of stops in Piper City we headed to Great Papa's house in Gilman. He was so excited that Claire stopped by to play! And Claire helped pass out some candy and fruit while we were there.

Claire had her first taste of smarties and now she's in love!

After Great Papa's house we headed to visit Uncle Russ & Aunt Janet & Kelly. They had kitties and horses so Claire was in heaven. She even gave the horse a kiss!

We made a stop at Great Grandma Ficklin's house and got a TON of goodies before heading to Gammy & Papa's house for some trick-or-treating and pizza.

We've had a big week since Halloween too! Trever was gone Monday-Thursday for work so Monday night Grandma Marge came home with me and played with Claire while I packed up some stuff and did a little cleaning. On Tuesday we got up really early so that I could go vote and then we all headed toward Farmer City. Claire spent the day with Grandma and then we went trick-or-treating in LeRoy. We went to Great Grandma's house, "Aunt" Barb's house and JP & Linsay's house. At Aunt Barb's she had her first experience with pop rocks which was pretty entertaining. We came home Wednesday night but not until we took Shelbie out for dinner and did some trick-or-treating at the Voelkers. Thursday night we hung out at home, took a bath and hit the sack waiting for daddy to come home. Trever got home about midnight and then came home early tonight so we could have a normal evening as a family. And, he is in charge of dinner. It looks like we are having pork burgers and cornbread stuffing from a box. Yummo!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T18:22:00.001-07:00

Last night we carved Claire's first pumpkin! She wasn't real sure what to think about the goop inside.

But she sure enjoyed scooping it up once it was outside of the pumpkin.

Then, daddy decided he wanted to carve something special in the pumpkin for Claire.

Claire is OBSESSED with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse thanks to her daddy so he fueled the obsession a little more.

Claire thought it was pretty cool but refused to look at the camera to prove it. She would much rather giggle at the candle inside and say "hot hot"

The best picture we could get of Claire with her Mickey Mouse pumpkin!

Tonight we'll get more pictures of Claire's first trick or treating experience!

P is for...a weekend in review

2010-10-18T17:58:00.000-07:00

Peanut

This one is now a little over a week old but I still wanted to share it! This was taken Saturday, October 9th when I got to meet baby Hunter for the very first time!

Puppy Pajamas

Claire loves her jamjams with the "pupuhs" on them. And she loves to say CHEEEEEEEESE!

Pretty in Pink

All bundled up and chewing on that lip with her brand new teeth!

Pads

I can tell which one is Graham out on the field because his hip pads stick out of his pants! He's the one looking at me!

POMS

Shelbie cheers for Grahams football team. She does a really nice job!

Points

Graham scored a touchdown for his team! It was pretty exciting to watch!

Photo Op

We took our first trip to Rader Family Farms. Claire woke up after the drive down and wasn't sure what to think of all of the people!

Petting Zoo

Claire is a huge animal lover. She really enjoyed the goats and the baby pigs.

Poultry

Rader Family Farms had a few chickens running around. Claire really enjoyed chasing them and following them under the trees.

Playing

They Pumpkin Patch had a couple of big tubs of corn to play in. Claire LOVED it and wanted to go back!

Proof

A family picture to prove that all three of us were there together. Grandma Marge went too, but I didn't get any pictures with her in them.

PUMPKINS!!!

The whole point of the trip! Claire got to pick out her very own pumpkin. She thought this one was a little heavy.

Pointing

Claire has started pointing and counting things. She will repeat numbers after us and she enjoyed counting some pumpkins with Grandma at the Pumpkin Patch.

Pitchin'

Yes, she got her way and went back to play in the corn some more! She liked to pitch the corn around the tub.

Play house

There was a little village of play houses at Rader Family Farms. Claire got right in there and played with the big kids!

Princess

Claire & daddy climbed up on the straw bale castle. Claire sure wanted to do what the big kids were doing.

Presents

A special thank you to Aunt Jeanie & Uncle Steve for sending Claire the shirt she is wearing in the pictures at the Pumpkin Patch

Potty

And, the biggest news is that Claire went potty on the big girl potty this morning! I'm pretty sure she didn't know what was going on but she woke up dry and we sat her on the potty and she did her business! Here's to hoping this becomes a trend!

16 months

2010-10-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

I think the theme for the past month would have to be babies! We have been able to meet lots of new little friends in the last few weeks, celebrate babies on the way and even worry a little about babies wanting to come too early or one that really wasn't sure he wanted to come at all!

The first weekend in October we had some very special house guests. The Todd family came to stay with us on Friday night and we all got to tailgate together before the football game on Saturday. I didn't get Andrew in the picture, but here is Claire with her friend, and one of my favorite little boys, Jeremiah.

We also got to meet Baby Abby at the tailgate. Abby's mommy & Claire's mommy use to show pigs together and then were in the same dorm & sorority in college. We were very excited to finally meet her!

After a big day of football on Saturday we headed to Grandma & Grandpa Builta's house to celebrate Great Grandma Builta's birthday. Claire wasn't sure what to think about the singing and fire on the cake. Great Grandma made Claire the bib she was wearing and a really cute little jacket. They are two of our favorite items right now.
Claire LOVES her kitty. She tends to be a little rough with him as you can see here.

Saturday morning I got to meet one of the newest members of our "family". I don't have a picture of little Hunter but I hope to beg his mommy & daddy for one soon.

Saturday evening we got to meet Mr. Caleb. Caleb's mommy & Claire's daddy have been friends for a long time. He was an awfully good boy during his visit and Claire thought he was ok. I'm afraid he might have gotten a little roughed-up by Claire if he'd been here much longer!

And on Sunday I helped host a baby shower for our good friends Nicole & Kevin. They are expecting their first baby in December! They've had a rough couple of weeks and Nicole was really excited to be out of the house for a while...and doesn't she look great!?!

And today Claire turned 16 months old. She is becoming quite a big girl! If only we could get her potty trained! :) So, here is what Claire is up to at 16 months....

Cottage Cheese! This kid would never eat anything else if we didn't make her!
She pets the heifers on the nose and tongue and then squeels and puts her hands up to her face like she thinks it's the coolest thing ever!
She says "shhh" when she sees a baby.
She amazes me with how well she can follow directions. When she wants to follow directions that is. For example, I just asked her to push the chair under the table and she did!
She likes for us to pour water in to her little toy cups and then spills most of it down her front.
She says lots of words that we understand.
She likes Elmo and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She says "hotdog" and dances just like Mickey does.
She climbs up and down out of her high chair.
She can count to 3 without much prompting and Ms. Mary & Ms. Cierra are working with her on her colors and shapes.
She says "cheese" when she sees a camera or cell phone.
She likes to watch tv and mommy likes that she will sit quietly while the tv is on.

I've been trying to catch more simple daily activities with her on camera. Hopefully I'll do better than I have. Here are her 16 month pictures with the incredible shrinking bear!!!

15 month stats

2010-09-22T06:59:00.000-07:00

Claire went to the doctor on Monday. She weighed 24 pounds 4 ounces (75%) and was 33 inches long (OFF THE CHARTS!) She got two shots and doesn't get any more until Kindergarten!

We survived!

2010-09-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Claire, Congo, Rally the cows and I survived a whole week without Trever home! I know it's hard to believe, but the cows got fed twice every day and the house didn't burn down. It also didn't sell while he was gone which is a bummer.

Claire and I kept ourselves fairly busy while daddy was away. Monday night we cleaned the house (not that you could tell by Tuesday morning) and worked on accounting for Black Nugget Farms. Tuesday was an early day. We left the house a little before 7 and stopped by the Voelker's house to drop of a couple of bugs that we collected for Graysen. Then Claire and I head to Farmer City where we met Grandma Marge. Claire spent the day with Grandma and helped take lunch to the field.

Tuesday night we surprised our friend Amy. When she got home from class Claire, Marla and I were there cleaning her house! Amy and Ryan are expecting their first baby on September 29th and we can't wait!

I don't remember what we did on Wednesday. Oh yeah, we skyped with daddy in Texas! He had a later night than usual and Claire had an earlier night than usual so we didn't talk long. Claire was pretty excited to see her daddy though!

Thursday was another long day. I dropped Claire off at Miss Mary's house at 7 and headed for Farmer City. Then I headed toward Danville to scout fields. I got back to FC and towed a belt back to Piper for a grower. Then I had a church meeting at 5 and a meeting at the Extension Office at 6:30. I didn't pick Claire up until 8:30! That was a long day at Miss Mary's house, but we're awfully glad she was willing to help us out!

Friday was our last day of chores before daddy could take over again. We kept track of his airplane on the internet and couldn't wait for him to get home! Before he got home we tossed Claire in the bathtub...

And Congo joined her! He LOVES the bathtub! Then we put on daddy's favorite jam jams...

And Claire was soooo tired. But she stayed awake until daddy got home!!! She was sooo excited to see him!

Yesterday we went to the Illini football game. Kickoff was during nap time and Claire finally passed out in the 3rd quarter! After that she was a much better football fan!

Today Claire went on her very first tractor ride! Being the product of two farming families, I can't belive it took 15 1/2 months to get her in a tractor! I didn't get to ride along, but I hear that the tractor ride went much better than the ride in the combine with Papa Greg.

Then mommy played photographer for a while. She wasn't the happiest camper but I got a few cute ones.

The next few weeks are fairly empty on the calendar but between harvest and Trever starting a new job, we might have our hands full!

Claire's first ponytail

2010-09-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

15 months

2010-09-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a few weeks since I last posted anything and, as usual, we've got plenty to tell about. The last weekend in August is always the Builta reunion. Claire wasn't the baby of the group this year, but she had a ton of fun! Daddy spent a lot of time chasing her through the playground.
And, then mommy chased her some more trying to get some pictures! She loves the little hamster tunnels!

Later that week, Trever spent his final day at Select Exotics and accepted a position with Family Heritage.

We spent Labor Day weekend together and simply enjoyed being together as a family. On Saturday we went to Chenoa and took in our first Mighty Mites game. I enjoyed putting on my "big" lense and trying my hand at some sports photography.

Shelbie is my little sister with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and she cheers for the GCMS Mighty Mites team.

This is my favorite picture of Graham since my battery died in the first half!

This is my favorite picture from the day. This little guy is a friend of the Voelkers and Michael was pestering him from the sidelines.
Sunday we headed to church. After church and naps we headed to a cookout at our friends house just north of Piper. It was a great chance to visit with people in our community and we are so appreciative of the invite.

On Monday we took a shopping trip to Arcola, Tuscola and Champaign. We literally shopped till we dropped but we got Trever some new things for his new job!

Tuesday moning Trever headed for Chicagoland for licensing training. He had a few chalenges with the traffic but after 2 days of class and 4 tests he is officially eligible to sell insurance in the State of Illinois!

In the meantime, a nasty stomach bug hit our house. Claire woke up sick Tuesday morning. Luckily, Gammy came over to help with Claire so I could get some work done. She was feeling much better by the end of the day. We went back to the sitters & work on Wednesday but by Wednesday night it had hit me too. Thankfully, Trever was home Wednesday night to study and could take care of Claire while I slept on the bathroom floor! He made it through his tests on Thursday but the bug found him by bedtime that night. Unfortunately he wasn't able to slow down too much so it lingered with him a while longer. We've all been upright for a couple of days now so hopefully it stays away.

Yesterday Claire turned 15 months old! We tried to get some pictures before we headed to Champaign for the day but were only successful with this one.

We had a baby shower for Radebaby yesterday at El Toro in Champaign. I didn't take any pictures but I hope to get a few from the others in attendance. We stopped to see Grandma & Grandpa at the tailgate but decided to skip the game. I was in bed asleep before the game was even over!

This morning Trever taught Sunday school and then we tried to get our 15 month bear pictures. Attempt 1...

Attempt 17...short 1 shoe.

I took a lot more than that, but those are the best I got!

Then we went and helped daddy in the barn. Before he left for the week he got all of the feed ready so that Claire and I can handle chores without him. Claire really wanted to help!

She even figured out how to turn the water on. She LOVES water.
And she pet the heifers. I wish mommy was as confident with the cows as Claire is!

And Trever left about 12:30 for the airport. He will be in Dallas until Friday for Sales School. It sounds like he has a pretty action packed week ahead of him and we sure hope he has time to call home before midnight! Claire and I are off to a pretty good start to our week! Only 9 more chores until Daddy gets home!

He just texted me that he's boarding in Chicago. Next stop St. Louis!

Claire's first Quad Tour

2010-08-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

We took Claire on her first tour of the U of I quad today. She got her picture taken at the Alma Mater!

Then some strangers (Kara & Jake) thought we really needed to take a family picture.

Then we headed to Cold Stone Creamery where we treated Kara & Jake to some yummy ice cream!

Claire's first demo derby

2010-08-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we found out that our friend Tony was going to be in the demo derby at the Fairbury fair. We happened to be free that night so we of course we took them up on the invitation to come watch. We got there with just enough time to check out the Fairbury Fair before the demo started.

Claire with Mr. Tony's car in the background. He was the red and blue #13.

Claire and daddy with her checkered flag. They passed these out too all of the kids in the stands.

Mr. Tony with his trophy. Not really sure why since he got last place, but he got his entry fee back and a trophy to go with it!

I don't think we'll be frequenting the demo derby scene, but it was a lot of fun to have someone to cheer for!

14 months

2010-08-12T18:49:00.001-07:00

Time is flying by. We've done lots of things since my last blog entry but we haven't taken many pictures.

A few weeks ago we gave Claire her first ear of sweet corn and she LOVED it! She hates to wait for it to cool off and sometimes calls it a banana. We made a trip to the McLean County fair last weekend and picked up an ear of corn at the Pork Producers booth. It kept her entertained for over an hour!

Yesterday Claire turned 14 months old. She becomes more independent everyday and has developed quite the attitude. Since she wouldn't cooperate for the pictures, we decided to replace her with someone who doesn't throw fits and is potty trained!

We really didn't get a very good picture of Claire with the bear. She has figured out that she can see herself in the back of the camera. So, as soon as she sees the camera she yelss "MAMA" and takes off running toward me to see the picture in the back of the camera.

At 14 months Claire...

throwssome serious fits
likes to help daddy do chores
carries Congo around upside down
climbs on everything
knows the signs for more, please, thank you, and all done
says quite a few words like more, thank you, puppy, I, mama, dada, papa, Mamaw, nana (banana), Melmo (Elmo), and a lot of others that I can't think of right now.knows what cows, sheep, chicken, snakes, bees, monkeys, donkeys, horses, ducks, and pigs say (everybody knows pigs say LaLaLa right?)
Knows what outside means and you better mean it when you say it.
isn't one bit afraid of cows or pigs charging out her down the aisle in the barn, but is terrified of sleeping pigs.
LOVES brushing her teeth
has 9 teeth and a few more on the verge of poking through
Folds her hands when we say prayers

I"m sure there are many other things that I'm missing. I'll try to be better about catching the every day things and post a little more often. But for now, I need to pack for vacation. That's right, we're headed to the State Fair!

A cousin, a wedding and a kitty

2010-07-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

We've had a very busy July! After two weekends of weddings we had a weekend off and got to spend it with some very special visitors. Aunt Kyla and Maddi K came home for a few days. We went to the fair and played all weekend long!

Maddison LOVES to give Claire hugs....but Claire wasn't so sure about ALL.OF.THE.HUGGING!

Getting two toddlers to sit still AND smile is nearly impossible!

This picture turned out pretty well. The dress was a present from Miss Marie. It's one of our favorites!

Maddison thought there might be room for both of them in the car!

The girls enjoyed playing in the sand and riding the 4-wheeler with Papa Kuip.

And Claire put the sand in her mouth, which just proves that Grandma & Grandpa's house is a great place for a sandbox!

Last weekend was a busy wedding weekend! My long time friend Erin got married in a quaint (and very hot) little church south of LeRoy. I enjoyed being a part of her wedding festivities.

The bride was beautiful in her red and white dress!

Mom and dad cleaned up pretty well too!

This is the only decent picture of the bride and groom.

The LeRoy crew! Jack & Carolyn, Joey, Jessie, Jenna, Diane, Erin & Tony, me & T. JP & Linsey had already left for the night.

We ran out of marshmallows for the chocolate fountain, so Carolyn and I had to improvise.

Claire and I headed to LeRoy Thursday morning and didn't get back until Sunday night. Trever thought that meant he could bring home another inside pet. His name is Congo and he currently lives in the basement. He only gets out when he's on a leash.

Claire LOVES to carry Congo around. And Congo tolerates it.

He even lets her dress him up!

We've got other things going on around here too but it's going to have to wait for another post!

13 months

2010-07-12T05:32:00.000-07:00

What's been going on since Claire turned 1? All kinds of stuff!

The weekend after Claire's birthday was Fathers day. This was the first weekend in months that we hadn't had plans or had work to do in the garage.

On June 25-26 we took a little "vacation" to the National Junior Anugs Association Eastern Regional that was held in Bloomington, IL. Claire spent some time playing with her friend Haley. Hopefully they will be great friends because we plan on about 20 more years of showing together! The next weekend was the 4th of July. We spent the morning of the 3rd in Onarga for the big festivities. Claire sat perfectly still for the parade and shared candy with Ava & Kate. Thanks to Aunt Jeanie for taking some pictures for us. After the parade we went to the park for lunch. Great Papa Kuipers shared his chips with Claire and he quickly became her best friend. Then we sent Claire home with Gammy so Trever and I could go to a wedding. We enjoyed the wedding of Trever's college roommate and judging teammate, Jeff & his new wife Ashley.

On Sunday we headed to Lake Mattoon for a day in the water. These pictures don't show it very well, but Claire LOVED the lake. She wasn't too fond of the life jacket but did pretty good in the floaty.

Claire's first boat ride. She wasn't too sure what to think and by the time she was smiling, my battery was dead!

I had to make a super quick diaper run one day last week and after some quick calculations determined that these "denim" diapers were cheaper than plain ol' white ones. We had to do a quick photo shoot to show them off.

Friday night I got to spend some girl time celebrating Erin Burcham's bachelorette party. It was pretty low key and just a good time. But I didn't take any pictures! Wait just a couple of weeks and I'm sure I'll have plenty from her wedding day!

Saturday night Claire got to stay with Grandma & Grandpa Builta and Trever and I headed to Shipman for the wedding of my co-worker Nicole. It was a warm but very nice wedding and I got some great pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.

And finally, yesterday Claire turned 13 months old! She still doesn't want to sit still with the bear but now it's because she knows she can see herself in the back of my camera! So, here are a couple of pictures from our photo shoot.

We finally tied her to the chair but not before bribing her and losing a shoe!

At 13 months old Claire is...

Eating us out of house and home.
Loves hotdogs, strawberries, bananas, watermelon and green beans.
Cries when daddy goes outside without her.
Points to her bed when she's ready to go nigh nigh.
Says nigh nigh!
says uh oh, pupu (puppy), mAma (grandma), papa, baba (baby), and she has started telling us NO once in a while.
She knows the signs for more, all done, please and food. Sometimes we get a sign that supposedly means drink/milk.
LOVES going to Miss Mary's every morning and doesn't care for coming home in the afternoon.

By the way...

2010-06-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

Claire was 22 pounds and 30 1/2 inches tall at her check-up today.

Party time!

2010-06-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

Claire had a GREAT party on Saturday. We were extremely lucky to have so many family members and friends in attendance. Claire had a blast and so did her mommy & daddy.

We've spent the last few months remodeling our garage. It's a good thing we did because we spent a lot of time in there thanks to monsoon season here in Illinois.

Claire got lots of super cool toys. This scooter toy was a custom crafted by Cooter just for Claire!

One of Claire's favorite toys, and definately the loudest toy she got, was the train from Gammy & Papa.

Claire got a Going to Grandma's house bag fool of goodies from Grandma & Grandpa B. Including her very own cell phone!

We did get all of the gifts unwrapped but Claire wasn't overly intersted. There were kids to play with and rain to dance in!

Finally it was time for cake. Great Grandma Builta made Claire a very special lamb cake. It's a cake just like her mommy had for her first birthday.

She was a little timid about the diving in to the cake, but with a little help to Aunt Kyla she got good and messy! After a quick bath and a wardrobe change Claire was back to her tom boy antics.

She didn't need any encouragement, but she had plenty!

Too bad she didn't open her present from Kara until after she sat down in the puddle. The pictures of Claire in her super cute rubber boots didn't want to load to the blog.

Thank you to everyone who made her 1st birthday so much fun! I know she won't remember it, but we will!

Our baby girl is 1!

2010-06-11T07:26:00.001-07:00

She wanted to sleep in, but mean ol' mommy woke her up with a camera flash. And daddy was singing "Happy Birthday Claire, this is your special day".

Slowly but surely we got a smile out of her!

She wasn't quite sure what to think about the fire on her rolls.

Then she opened up her present from mommy & daddy! A pretty charm bracelet with her name on it!

And we got a quick picture with the shrinking bear!

Claire is spending her birthday with Daddy, Gammy & Cousin Maddison at a cattle show in Bloomington. After a couple quick shopping stops they'll be home to help put the finishing touches on everything for the big party tomorrow.

*You may notice the large, red bump on her head! Let's just say that Claire hasn't mastered the stairs yet. She's a tough girl though!

Claire videos

2010-05-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of videos that show some of Claire's newest tricks. They aren't as great as the real thing, but they'll have to do!

Life at 11 months

2010-05-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

Claire is an active, independent, 11 month old. So, what does a day in the life of 11 month old Claire look like?

6:20 a.m. Mommy & Daddy force her out of bed so we can eat scrambled eggs together.
6:45 a.m. Time to hop up on the bed and get dressed for the day
7:00 a.m. Daddy takes Claire to Miss Mary's house.
7:05 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. Sh has TONS of fun at Miss Mary's house and aparently takes too many naps.
4:45 p.m. Mommy picks Claire up (unless mommy is working late dealing with crabby farmers and then daddy picks her up)
5:00 p.m. Claire helps daddy do chores (aka sits in her stroller) or helps mommy make dinner
5:30 p.m. Claire gets locked in her baby jail (aka a pack and play) with her bottle while mommy and daddy work in the garage.
6:00 p..m Claire has a meltdown because her bottle is gone and she's still locked in baby jail.
6:05 p.m. Mommy gets tired of listening to her scream so she takes Claire inside to finish dinner.
6:45 p.m. Claire "helps" mommy fill the dishwasher and plays while daddy goes back outside to work.
7:30 p.m. BATH TIME!
8:00 p.m. Play time until
9:00 p.m. Bed time

In between all of this excitement, Claire enjoys....

Eating sticks, rocks, mulch, dirt, etc.

Playing with Rally, giving him open mouthed kisses, and feeding him mulch, rocks, sticks, dirt, etc.
She LOVES her dadadadadadadadada....I do believe that is the ONLY word she knows.
Playing Tarzan....beating her chest, or anyone elses, like she's Tarzan.

And growing up and becoming more independent every day.

The last few weeks

2010-04-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on the blogging lately. And I've also been slacking on the picture taking. Claire has been keeping us busy. She does not slow down! That means that everything we do involves an extra set of hands.

A couple of weeks ago Trever brought home my birthday/mothers day present/fathers day present. Claire helped him put it together, when she wasn't eating rocks.

A couple of weeks ago, Claire and I roadtripped with Angie and Addison to Jacksonville, IL for a very special baby shower. Dani and I have been friends since our pig showin' days, we're sorority sisters, and now she's Claire's "Crazy Aunt Dani". We're excited that in about a month there will be another little girl for Claire to play with. The picture below is one of the better pictures of all of the girls and the one boy of the group.

In the picture below, Claire & I are behind Darcy & Delaney, then there is Becky & Hayley, Dani & baby W, JorjAnn & Zachary, Angie, Addison & Baby Eggenberger #2.

Last weekend we got to hang out with two of our favorite, and growing, families! Jeremiah was having a good time playing with Mr. Potatohead. He wasn't so sure about sharing it with Claire though.

We wanted to get a picture of Claire with her boyfriends. Of course we didn't plan very well and they were all thinking about bed when we finally did it. None of the pictuers had all 3 kids facing the camera, but I thought this was a cute picture. It looks like Jeremiah is teaching Claire a thing or two. And poor Andrew was just thrown in there!
This week has been a busy work week for us but our evenings have been spent working around the farm. Grandma Marge came yesterday and spent the afternoon with Claire while Grandpa went to a pig sale. Tomorrow night we are both heading to get our littles and who knows what the weekend will bring.

10 months

2010-04-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

Claire had a pretty low key 10 month birthday yesterday. She was super happy when she woke up and even cuddled for a little while. She ate pancakes, took a nap, went to church, ate some lunch, helped remodel the garage, played with Gammy and Papa, took a LONG nap and then posed for pictures before bathtime, playtime and bedtime.

Getting pictures with the bear continues to become more difficult. We've also learned that Claire is not a big fan of the grass when it touches her bare legs as you can see in the last picture!

Enjoy!

Claire's 1st Easter

2010-04-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Claire had a rough week last week. She started off the week a little on the whiney side with a runny nose and nasty cough. She finished the week with lots of goodies in her Easter basket and a new tooth!

Early in the week she got a special package in the mail! She got a super cute Easter shirt from Uncle Steve & Aunt Jeanie!

Gammy sent home Claire's Easter basket with us a little early. Claire didn't realize it was there until about Thursday. Don't those eyes look like they are saying "I'm sorry mama. I didn't mean to eat the whole chocolate marshmallow bunny by myself"

But this evil grin tells a whole different story!

On Friday, Miss Mary and Miss Cierra took the kids to the nursing home for an Easter egg hunt. I showed up to take a few pictures and beat up the big kids that tried to take Claire's eggs.

Claire wasn't sure what to think of the Easter Bunny. She refused to touch her fur, bu we got a picture anyway!Before we headed to Good Friday service this is what we found in the bathroom....She walked around the house for a few minutes with toilet paper stuck to her foot!

Saturday night we dyed eggs. Only a dozen though.

Ok...so mommy and daddy dyed eggs....after mommy forced daddy to help...but doesn't Claire look cute watching!

And eating the egg that cracked during boiling?

Sunday morning Treve was in charge of Sunrise Service and the breakfast that followed. Then we headed to church so Gammy & Papa could see Claire in her Easter dress. A quick stop at Great-Grandma Ficklin's and we were on the road to Great-Grandma Builta's house.

Here is Claire in her adorable little Easter Dress. Here are a couple of my favorites!

A family picture while we're all dressed up!

After lunch we took a walk down to "Aunt" Barb & "Uncle" Larry's house. We knew they would have some pretty flowers for a photo shoot. No flowers in this picture but it's got my two favorite people in it!

Claire had about had it by the time we got to "Aunt" Barb & "Uncle" Larry's. She thought that the flamingos were pretty cool though!

Now it's Monday and we're 1/5th of the week down and headed toward another weekend! We do have a couple of things going on but nothing too exciting.

And, before I save this entry and sign out, our house would like to spend a very special happy birthday toward Tipton, IA! We love you MJ! Enjoy the big 3-0!

Iowa in March

2010-03-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

At 1 p.m. on March 19th in Piper City, IL the thermometer sai 64 degrees. When I entered the state of Iowa a few hours later the thermometer on the truck read 52 degrees. By Saturday morning there was a considerable amount of snow and even some sleet.

Last weekend, Claire and I took another roadtrip. This time we headed west toward Tipton, IA to visit one of our favorite families, the Todds.

Jeremiah is my favorite 3 year old. I love playing with Jeremiah and listening to the stories that come out of his mouth. My favvorite was when he told me about his moose slippers. He said "these aren't just any slippers, their MOOSE slippers".

Claire was a good roadtripper, even if she did only sleep for 20 minutes the entire drive out.

Andrew is the baby of the group (for a few more months:). He's got an adorable little smile and his feet move a mile a minute. He's awfully stinking cute too!

Claire thought Andrew had some pretty cool toys. She did a good job being gentle with the baby...most of the time.

Not a bad picture considering the ages of the kids and the fact that there was most likely a Handy Manny episode on the tv!

Like I said, Claire was gentle...most of the time.

Saturday afternoon we took off for the indoor pool. Claire was too cute in her swimsuit. Especially when we put her stocking hat on with it!

Claire LOVED the swimming pool! She loves bathtime so I'm not surprised. She would kick her legs like crazy and giggle! It was a blast

We rushed back Sunday morning so we could make it home for Aunt Phyllis' 85th birthday party. Claire was missing Jeremiah later that afternoon and decided it would be fun to bump her head. She had her first noticeable injury after getting in a fight with the toybox.

We had a great time visiting with John, Marla, Jeremiah and Andrew! We hope we can find time to do it again soon!

Doctor Check-up

2010-03-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

Claire went to the doctor yesterday for her 9 month check-up. She weighs 19 pounds 14 ounces and is 28 1/2 inches long. She is in the 75th percentile for those stats and her head circumfrence is in the 90th percentile!

She got to spend the rest of the afternoon at home with me and was a wonderful little girl while I spent about an hour and a half on the phone trying to get insurance figured out for her hospital stay last June. So much for an enjoyable afternoon off!

She has also been fighting naptime a lot lately. Until dinner time when she couldn't keep her eyes open! Then she took an hour long nap sometime between 6-8:30 last night! I'm pretty sure mommy and daddy were asleep long before Claire was!

9 months

2010-03-11T08:10:00.000-08:00

Claire is 9 months old today! Only 3 more months until we need to have the garage put back together and the yard ready for her 1st BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA! They'll be lion tamers and clowns and elephant rides....just kidding!

We had our 9 month photo session this morning and it's getting harder and harder to catch Claire with the bear. But isn't her little bulldog face adorable?

Claire, Ms. Mary & Ms. Cierra have been working on walking. Claire tends to stand up in the middle of the room, run until she falls, face plant in the carpet and try it again. She'll take quite a few steps before she gives up and crawls. Here are some action pics...

Other things going on...

Claire loves Rally!
She gives open mouthed kisses and rubs her bottom teeth on your cheek.
She loves to swing in the park with the kids from Ms. Mary's house.
She DOES NOT sit still.
She'll eat anything including a good portion of my pork burger last night.
She goes to the doctor Monday afternoon for her 9 month check up!

February Follow-up

2010-03-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

I've been slow at getting updates lately so I'm going to do a photo recap since we last talked. Clarie got lots of goodies in the mail for Valentine's day. We kept putting the money in her piggy bank so she could push it in but instead she took it out! She LOVED her little game as you can tell by the huge expression on her face!

She also got this super cute little outfit from Uncle Steve and Aunt Jeanie. I had almost bought the same outfit for her the week before it came in the mail. Plus, this is just a super cute picture of my almost walking baby.

Last week we went to the Illinois Angus Futurity in Springfield. I'm afraid my little girl is going to be taking after her daddy when it comes to animal loving! She wanted right up there in the heifers face to pet her.

Trever did most of the work but I am pretty proud of myself for what little help I did! (If you didn't know already, I'm TERRIFIED of cows)

Trever is headed to the showring. They only placed the top 2 and we weren't up there but we did get Callie sold to the same family thought bought Dori last year.

Claire dressed the part of a little cowgirl. She had the vest, the bling and the boots!

Isn't she too stinkin' cute! She climbed the fence and then fell sound asleep in time to miss the heifer selling!

Photo Shoot

2010-02-24T07:56:00.001-08:00

Claire had her 8 month photo shoot a couple of weeks ago. Grandma Marge took her to Photography by Misty and this is what she came up with!

8 months

2010-02-11T08:22:00.000-08:00

Claire is 8 months old today! She's celebrating by having cereal and bananas for breakfast, spending the day with Ms. Mary & Ms. Cierra, and spending the night at Grandma & Grandpa's house before her professional photo shoot tomorrow.

Here are some photos from the life of an 8 month old...

Claire wore her "Neela dress" to church on Sunday. This picture is for Auntie Ria and Graysen! I had a GREAT picture of her smiling and standing up without holding on but then I realized I didn't have a card in my camera. By the time I got the card loaded she was ready for a nap!

Claire is sporting her new Valentine's Day jam jams from Gammy & Papa.

She LOVES horsey rides of all kinds. She laughs so hard when daddy puts her on his shoulders! And, she likes to crawl back to her stable to ride her bouncy horse too.
So what kind of fun things does our little sweetheart enjoy at 8 months...

eating anything we'll feed her and a few things that she finds on the floor
standing up with no hands
cheesy grins to show off her two bottom teeth
playing with her puppy that sings "when you're happy and you know it clap your hands"
She hasn't quite mastered clapping but loves to beat on things to make noise
Ms. Cierra taught her how to wave
"talking" on the phone (or fighting mommy for the phone and then getting quiet when she hears someone talking to her. She always gets a HUGE grin on her face)
bath time!
unloading the dishwasher (climbing on the door when it's down and pulling out the bottom rack)
Getting in the refrigerator when the door is open
giving open mouthed kisses on your head (slobbering in your hair)
drinking juice from her sippy cup
saying mamamamamam and bob bob bob bob bob and yayayayaya and occasionally we let daddy pretned she is saying dadadadada
saying the above very loudly during church
flirting with anyone who will pay attention to her!

And without further adiue...the incredible shrinking bear!

Maddison turns 1!

2010-02-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

I know I've been slacking with the blog updates, so here you go! Only a week late! Two weekends ago Trever, Claire, Greg, Kathy and I headed toward Ohio for a very special birthday party! We had a good time even if we did spread colds to the entire family.

Here's a close up of the birthday girl in her birthday girl shirt!

Maddi wasn't too sure what to think of all of the people checking her out but she got some super cool toys!

Apparently Maddison is going to be a neat freak. She didn't really get in to her cake much and when Aunt Krista decided to help her, this is what resulted!

The coolest gift of the weekend was the music set so that Claire & Maddison can start their own band. :-D

I'm not sure how much Claire enjoyed her trip. When we picked her up from Ms. Mary's house she had a slight fever. By the time we got to Ohio she had a runny nose, runny eyes, drool, the whole shebang! We all survived her first fever and cold, but not without sharing! We're all still recovering and it sounds like the DeOrnellas family is suffering now, but we're sure glad we got to celebrate Maddi's first birthday!

Isn't Claire too stinkin' cute...even with a runny nose!

7 months!

2010-01-12T05:26:00.000-08:00

Claire is 7 months old now! And, she's getting harder to photograph with the bear. None of these pictures are the best, but you get the "picture"! :)

So, what does our 7 month old do these days?

Crawls everywhere
pulls up on everything
eats anything we let her
loves her puffs!
likes to play with things she shouldn't (computer, cell phone, remote control, wii)
gets up in the middle of the night to eat (darn growing spurt)
wears 6-9 month clothes
hates shoes
blows spit bubbles ALL the time (especially in quiet places like church)
drools a bunch
has 2 teeth on the bottom
laughs when others are laughing
and much more...but I need to get to work!

Claire LOVES puffs!

2010-01-06T18:35:00.000-08:00

And tonight she dumped a bunch of them out on the floor! She was eating them by the handful so I just let her clean them up that way!

My two front teeth

2010-01-03T18:17:00.000-08:00

Claire is finally sporting some very sharp pearly whites! The first one popped out just in time for Daddy's birthday party on December 28th. The second one made its grand entrance on New Year's Eve!

Claire's First Christmas-Rewind

2009-12-30T12:37:00.000-08:00

We've been on the go for about a week now so I'm just getting around to blogging about Claire's first Christmas. When I load pictures on to Blogger they always load in reverse order. Normally I take the time to reverse them, but this time I'm not. So, here goes our Christmas week in reverse order.

After a cancellation on Sunday, we finished up our family functions Monday night with the Read side of the family. We headed back to LeRoy to celebrate Trever's & Mom's birthdays and visit with my cousin Mike who was back from California/New York (he's in the middle of a move). We didn't take any pictures that night.

Sunday Trever preached to a congregation of 10, including himself. We spent the day taking down decorations, putting aways gifts and shampooing the carpet. Claire slept a lot trying to catch up from her busy weekend.

Saturday we headed to Greg & Kathy's for brunch and gift opening. Claire got a super cool princess CD that sings her name in it. She and daddy were dancing along to it and she LOVED it!

Claire enjoyed ripping the paper and then putting it in her mouth. She got some cool clothes from Gammy & Papa.

The best part about Christmas is getting to spend time with our family. We don't get to see Caisey nearly enough, but in good Aunt fashion here is a picture of Caisey with her new undies!

Christmas day we headed to Grandma Ficklin's house. Claire REFUSED to take a nap, but she finally gave up and slept on mommy for a while.

The day started in matching outfits for the two little girls. But after a series of blow outs for both of them, we never got a picture of them all dressed up together. But here is a picture of Claire with Caisey and Maddison. Trever's aunts and uncles were having a hard time telling the girls apart!

Trever got some warm clothes from Grandma Ficklin.

And Claire got her first santa hat.

Before we headed to Onarga we unwrapped our gifts from each other. I got some beautiful earrings from Trever and Claire gave me some make-up. Every morning Claire sits and stares at me when I put my make-up on and dry my hair so her daddy thought it was appropriate gift. Trever got new clippers for the cows and a book about the history of the National Junior Angus Association. And Claire got a new toy box made especially for her by her daddy.

We went to Christmas Eve service in Onarga. We thought Claire would stay asleep in her carseat, but boy were we wrong. She was awake the entire service!

Christmas eve night we spent at Grandma Builta's house. Here is a picture of all of the family in attendance.

And a picture of our little family...

My brother gave me a new card for my camera for Christmas. I guess the pictures from mom and dad's house must be on it!

We made out like bandits like usual. But that's not the point of the Christmas season. We enjoyed the excuse to spend time with our families, but we are sure looking forward to things slowing down and getting back to normal too! Hopefully I'll have another update for you soon!

Ho Ho Ho!

2009-12-22T07:29:00.001-08:00

Claire's first Illini Basketball game!

2009-12-18T10:32:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday we took Claire to her first Illini basketball game. Mom & Dad are still in the field so we used their tickets. Claire seemed to enjoy the festivities and even met a little girl named Lynne in the row behind us. Here are a couple of pictures to commemorate the event!

How big is Claire?

2009-12-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

SOoooOOOOOooo BIG!

Apparently nobody reads our blog because no one guessed how much Claire would weigh at her check-up yesterday. So, just in case there are still a few readers out there, here are her stats!

16 pounds 11 ounces

26 3/4 inches long

& shots in both legs!

She was a very good girl for Doctor A. She only cried for a second. Then Claire showed us what a good shopper she can be!

6 months!

2009-12-12T12:55:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe our little girl is 6 months old already! I try not to brag, but she is doing so many thing that a normal 6 month old shouldn't be doing! She's sitting up all the time, crawling all over the place, and even pulls herself up on things once in a while! Our house is becoming baby proofed very quickly!

Claire has been drooling like crazy the last few days and her face is red and chapped. EVERYTHING goes in her mouth She's had a bit of a cold and her teeth have been bothering her. She's decided it would be fun to stay up late and play with daddy and to get mom up once in a while for a midnight snack. She's tried out squash, carrots, and green beans for supper this week and had some pears and peaches with her oatmeal for breakfast. We go back Monday for her 6 month checkup!

Here are a few pictures from her 6 month mommy photo shoot!

Claire and the incredible shrinking bear!

"I'm bigger than you now! Watch out!"

Getting in to the Christmas presents..."Grandma and Grandpa B? Is it ok if I open one for you? Cuz I already did when mommy wasn't looking!"

This horse is a hand-me-down from Trever's employers. Claire LOVES it! She crawls to it and waits for daddy to pick her up to ride it. She's even started pulling herself up on it, but it usually ends up with a bump on the head!

Check back early next week for Claire's 6 month stats! Any guesses on what she might weigh?

Gettin' in the spirit...

2009-12-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a big day for Claire. We packed up and headed for LeRoy while daddy was at Sunday school. We went to the craft show, Christmas tree walk and had lunch with Grandma and Great Grandma Builta. Then we took lunch to the field for Aunt Kathi, Uncle Kenneht and Grandpa.

When we got home, Claire got to try some babyfood for the first time. She's been eating cereal for a couple of months. We let her try stuff off of our plate anytime we have a baby friendly food. But this was her first taste of greenbeans! This morning she tried some pears for breakfast.

After dinner we headed to watch Gammy perform in the Night of Carols that the Onarga United Methodist Choir puts on. Claire was the star of the show sitting on Gammy's lap while she sung.

Today we were suppose to leave for a roadtrip to Iowa. But we decided to stay home since there is a Blizzard warning for the area that we were headed to. Hopefully Claire's friends Jeremiah & Andrew stay warm and get to build a BIG snowman!

BFFs

2009-12-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

Today was the last home football game for our alma mater but only a very small portion of our group braved the temperatures to see it in person! The rest of us hung out at the Rademaker's to crawl around, snuggle, and enjoy the company. The best part was that we got to meet the newest member of our "family"!

Jeremiah, Claire & Andrew hanging out on the floor! Jeremiah was a big help and gave lots of kisses to Claire and his little brother. Claire thought it was cool that she wasn't the little baby and tried to touch his face and head a little too much!

It was great to meet Andrew and hang out with everyone this afternoon. We've got to get together again soon!

Turkey & dressing on the table!

2009-12-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

Sweet pumpkin pie is mighty fine! Brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. Thanksgiving is a family time!

Yes, my niece was tickled by the fact that I knew a Thanksgiving song. But, anyone who took part in the Bellflower Thanksgiving Feast knew there were Thanksgiving songs! Thanks to facebook, there are a few of us that have reminisced about the Thanksgiving Feasts at Bellflower Elementary. I remember the gym FULL of people, pictures of either me or Kirk dressed up like Indians, and watching ET in the band room the afternoon before Thankgiving break.

Anyhow, the moral of the story is, we got to take part in all of the things that the song mentioned this past week!

We started the festivities Wednesday evening when Kevin and Nicole came over for dinner on their way toward Gilman to visit their family. We had fajitas and margaritas and Claire worked on training "Uncle" Kevin and "Aunt" Nikki on how much fun babies can be!

Thursday morning we got to sleep in just a little before we headed to Greg & Kathy's for lunch with Trever's side of the family. We hung out with Caisey and Maddi until all of the others got there. This was the first Thanksgiving meal we got to spend with the Kuipers/Ficklin side and it was nice to be a part of it.

Of course when there are such adorable girls involved, the camera comes out. Check out these super cute cousins! Can you believe Caisey will be 13 in just 3 short days!

And a group shot of the DeOrnellas family! You'll have to wait for Christmas cards until you see our family shot!

We left Greg & Kathy's and headed toward LeRoy. We made a pit stop to introduce Claire to "Aunt" Barb, "Uncle" Lary and Jessie as well as a handful of other Swigarts hanging out at their house for the holiday.

After out pit stop we headed to the Builta Thanksgiving. This year we celebrated Turkey Day since Kirk celebrated his GOLDEN birthday on Thanksgiving. Claire wasn't sure what to think about the fire in front of them!

Friday Claire and I had the day off and we were lucky enough to have some special visitors. Ria, Graysen & Graham came and hung out with us while I cooked and baked. It was so much more fun to have company than to do it by myself! Plus, I had someone to help entertain Claire while I made a mess of the kitchen!

Friday night we headed back to Greg & Kathy's to bake Christmas cookies. And, of course we had to have a photo shoot or two to go with the cookies.

Claire & Santa....Maddison was long gone.

Gammy and her little girls. I'm working really hard to get Caisey to wear a matching outfit with Claire & Maddison but she refused!

Someone also thought it would be fun for the girls to try on their Christmas dresses and have a photo shoot. I think this pictures shows how successful it was!

And Claire finally got an opportunity to pick on the bigger cousin!
Saturday we headed to our traditional post Thanksgiving cattle sale and then did a little Christmas shopping. Sunday, Trever did more Christmas shopping and we added Reese (Trueline Queen 822) to our cow herd. She's suppose to have a baby in February. Then we headed to Champaign for one final Thanksgiving with the Reads. It sure was rough going back to work on Monday!

Girls weekend 2009

2009-11-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Claire and I took a little roadtrip to visit Kyla and Maddison in Ohio. Claire was a pretty good rider the majority of the trip but was definately ready to be out of her carseat by the time we got to their house.

This is a terrible picture of me, but there are so few of Claire and I together that I wanted to post it anyway.

Claire still isn't sure what to think about Maddi. There isn't a huge size difference between the two girls, but Maddison is 4 1/2 months older and quite a bit more active. Maddison is sitting up and crawling like a pro. Claire is just starting to try those activities out and can't quite keep up with her older cousin. Overall, the girls played well together. But Maddi did try to beat Claire up and let her know who was boss!

Saturday Kyla, Maddi, Claire and I headed to Columbus to do a little shopping. We had a car full of strollers, carseats and a few good purchases. By the time we got to Target things were starting to get a little crazy. The girls decided to share a cart. But it wasn't long until one started crying and before we knew it neither one of them was very happy. Needless to say this was our last stop of the day!
When we got back to Kyla and Maddi's house it was time for dinner. Maddison was nice enough to share her fingers with Claire.

I didn't really take many pictures this weekend, but here is an ok picture of the two girls Sunday before we headed home. Maddison looks like a monster next to Claire in this picture, but there really isn't a huge difference in size.

Thank you, Kyla and Maddison, for your hospitality this weekend! We hope we can do it again soon!

And, for an added bonus....

Monday morning I left Claire on the floor in our bedroom while I ran to the bathroom. When I came back I found her talking to the baby in the mirror. It went on for quite a while before I started the video but you get the idea! You can also see her working on those crawling skills!

Go Illini!

2009-11-14T19:26:00.000-08:00

Claire attended her 3rd football game today. She was very well behaved and even took a nap on "Aunt" Amy's lap. We didn't' see an Illini win, but we enjoyed our company. We sure miss having Jeremiah and his mommy & daddy there to tailgate with us though.

5 months

2009-11-13T18:11:00.000-08:00

Our little girl is 5 months old already! She continues to do new things everyday. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth and drools like crazy. She get's up on all fours and scoots everywhere she wants to go. She's eating rice cereal twice a day now and likes to taste anything you let her.

Last night Claire stayed with Great Aunt Kathi while Grandma Marge and I shopped for a whole new wardrobe at One Week Boutique. Tomorrow she'll be taking in her 3rd Illini game.

In case anyone cares, Trever and I are still around too. Trever has been busy getting Carley Calf ready to go to the Spotlight sale in a couple of weeks. We finished up harvest at work last weekend so things have started to slow down there.

And the picture you've all been waiting for....

Fall Fotos!

2009-11-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

We've had a lot of fun the last few weeks. My picture taking has subsided a little bit but that just means I can my scrapbook up to date faster!

The last Sunday of October was Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. Claire got to wear her halloween costume but I didn't get any full body shots. Here is a close-up (not sure why it's so small).

The fall colors were beautiful that day so while we waited on kids to show up I snapped a couple of shots. Here is a picture of Claire the pumpkin with her handsome daddy.

Last Friday we went to a Halloween party where Claire got to wear her costume again. All of the kids had their faces painted so I didn't want Claire to feel left out!

Saturday morning we learned that Claire had a new little boyfriend to play with. Andrew Jesse Todd is the son of our good friends Marla and John. His super cool big brother, Jeremiah, is one of Claire's favorite friends.

Saturday Claire stayed with Gammy and Papa so that Trever and I could go to the football game. She went shopping and played like crazy! No trick-or-treating this year though. We definately enjoyed ourselves at the football game and finally got to see Illinois win again!

Sunday was a beautiful day so we used it to take a few pictures of our beautiful little girl. Here daddy is determined to make a cowgirl out of her!

She really gave this pumpkin a complete inspection!

And this one is my favorite! Claire is such a happy girl!

I'm gonna get you Duckypig!

2009-10-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

My little boxer in bunny slippers

2009-10-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

The girls!

2009-10-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

No farmers in the field meant no work for me this weekend. Luckily that meant we were able to accomplish a lot of other things. Here is a brief rundown of our weekend:

Friday night was family date night. That means a trip for grocers or to Lowes. This week it was Lowes. We are the proud owner of a new dishwasher...that we don't have the right pieces for.
Saturday morning everyone slept in. After chores, Trever started installing the dishwasher, I cleaned and Claire took a 3 hour nap!
Saturday afternoon Trever kept working on the dishwasher and picked up around the house while I mowed the yard.
Saturday night was the highlight of our weekend! We got to see our nieces and play like crazy! We hadn't seen Caisey since Claire was 1 week old!
Sunday morning was Sunday School for Trever and church for all of us.
Sunday afternoon my mom came up and we went to a baby shower in Chatsworth. Claire was the highlight of the party.
This evening I made taco pizza for dinner, cleaned the carpets in half the house, did dishes and blogged. Trever played with Claire, tinkered with his newest toy, and we watched Sunday night TV.

Now we're off to bed so we can get back in the groove of work tomorrow. Hopefully it's a busy week at work and the farmers can be in the field!

Here are some pictures of the girls!Our AWESOME nieces, Maddison and Caisey!

Cousins...Maddison & Claire!

4 months

2009-10-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

Another BIG weekend in the life of Claire! Saturday she went to her second football game. It appeared to be a beautiful day when we left home, but turned out to be a little on the chilly side. Lucky for Claire she had a big blanket to keep her warm!

After the game it was time to tailgate. We had a nice spot where Claire and Jeremiah could hang out. Look at the two cutest Illini fans ever!

Jeremiah played with Claire, sang her songs and cuddled with her. I think he might have gotten a little fresh with her too!

After the football game we headed to Gammy & Papa's house to see Aunt Kyla and Cousin Maddison. The girls weren't quite sure what to think about each other. Maddison thought Claire was pretty cool, but Claire wasn't so sure who this bigger baby was that was trying to claw her eyes out!

While we were at Gammy & Papa's house, Claire tried her first meal of rice cereal. She did pretty well with it, but we've tried it the last two nights and she hasn't been as big a fan.

And Sunday was Claire's 4 month birthday. She had her check up last Thursday and weighed in at 14 pounds 14 ounces and 24 inches long. She likes to play with her toes and belly laugh. She has even graduated to size 2 diapers! Here is the picture you've all been waiting for...

Pancakes, football and a birthday

2009-10-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

We've been a bit on the busy side lately and blogging hasn't exactly been a priority. Harvest started at work last Tuesday in Piper City so work has been busy. A little rain on Thursday kept the growers out of the field and allowed a little break for the weekend. And, a big weekend it was! Friday night we visited the Rademaker's for their annual Octoberfest, and Saturday was Claire's first football game! This is how she spent the game...

It was a dreary day, but Claire was warmer than the rest of us. She was decked out in Orange and Blue, but you didn't get too see much of it because of her coat and pink fuzzy blanket.

Today we went to LeRoy to celebrate Grandma Builta's 83rd birthday. She was one family member short of having the entire family in attendance.

Claire will definitely have a sweet tooth, but apparently Kara doesn't understand what "a little bit" means! :) Today Claire got a taste of applesauce, some juice out of the creamed corn and obviously some frosting from the birthday cake!

And, finally, since I haven't had the chance to blog since last weekend, here is a picture of my special helper making pancakes last weekend. She enjoyed sitting in her big girl high chair and helping in the kitchen!

In the last week or so Claire has really started reaching for things. She enjoys her bounce bounce baby (walker type toy), and rolls all over the place. She scoots around and gets where she wants to go but isn't crawling. She is increadibly well behaved, a great sleeper and we love sharing her with our friends and family!

"Mini Me"

2009-09-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

I believe the cloning process has been perfected.....

Babies and Pumpkins everywhere!

2009-09-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Claire and I traveled to Garden Prairie, IL for a baby shower for my college friend Becky. It was a long day but we survived the 2 1/2 hour trip with 3 babies in the car and no major problems. We met the lone boy of the group at the shower for a grand total of 4 babies. The oldest, Delaney, is 14 months old, Addison is 10 months, Zach is almost 4 months and Claire is the baby at about 3 1/2 months. Taking pictures of all 4 of them was not an easy task. This is the best I have.

Claire also got to meet Dani for the first time. She thought both Dani, and her husband Chris, were pretty cool!

After the baby shower we headed to Susie's Garden Patch. This is the U-Pick farm that Becky's family owns. Here is a picture of Addison picking out her very own pumpkin.

Claire picked out her pumpkin too. (Let the record show that taking pictures on a very bright day, with a digital camera, while holding a child is not the easiest thing we have ever done, but we have pictures nonetheless!)

Claire did pose with the pumpkins that she and Addison picked out. She also had her first ride on the tailgate of a ranger!

We had a very long day but a good day with friends! We look forward to meeting Baby Perry after she makes her arrival in November!

3 months

2009-09-11T06:41:00.000-07:00

The incredible shrinking bear has returned for her 3 month photo shoot. Claire continues to grow like a weed even though she's starting to cut back on her milk consumption just a little bit. She is typically a very happy little girl but tends to get pretty fussy in the evenings. We think there might be a little something going on in the tooth department that is causing her to be uncomfortable. She chews on her hands a lot and likes the taste of her daddy's fingers. She enjoys standing up, arching her back, and singing the Beach Boys song Barbara Ann. She is no longer a big fan of her carseat, is growing out of lots of her clothes, and she doesn't stay in one place very long. Claire is having her first sleep over tomorrow night with Gammy and Papa Kuipers while Trever and I head to the Illini home opener! Go Illini!

Claire's Baptism

2009-09-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

Today was Claire's special day. We have been planning for this day for quite a while and were very lucky to have so many family members and friends join us in church this morning. We have been practicing for her baptism during bath time and she was such a trooper that she slept through the entire service.

Claire is a very lucky little girl to have such a special God-family. The Voelker family has been a very big part of my life since I was little. Ria use to babysit for Kirk and me and Mike worked for my dad. They lived in the tennant house on the farm and we spent lots of time together. It's hard to explain our relationship, but I just tell people that they might as well be family.

Here is Mike, Ria, Graham, Graysen, Pastor Liz, Trever, Claire & Krista.

Our family

Claire was at least the 4th generation to wear this gown. Her great-grandma read wore it as well as Great-Uncle Roger, Uncle Kirk and me.

Claire got all kinds of very nice gifts, including some Harley clothes from her God-father!

The Builta Family

The Kuipers family

We had a wonderful day surrounded by our friends and family. Claire got to meet some people for the very first time including her Great-Aunt Janet and the McIntyre family. Our little church was busting at the seems today and the regular crowd loved the sound of litte voices during the service.

my first video

2009-09-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

Click here to see a video of Claire rolling over. If anyone can help me figure out how to show the video in this blog entry, please let me know.

Sucker!

2009-09-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

Much like Kelly it looks like we are going to have a thumb sucker on our hands! Claire has had her hands in her face since her first ultrasound picture back in January and as soon as she came out she started sucking on her hands. Now, that thumb has finally found it's way in to her mouth. The other day in church she had her thumb in her mouth and a finger up her nose! The great part is that she's been on the floor for a good 10 minutes now completely entertaining herself with that thumb!

It looks like Great Grandma Builta will have another project in a couple of years when we are ready for her to quit sucking her thumb!

The weekend in review...

2009-08-31T09:14:00.000-07:00

Sleeping in Saturday morning...

Learning new tricks...fist bumpin' with daddy...

Love being naked...

Flying through the living room... Helping Gammy and Papa paint...

Attending her first Builta reunion...

Winning award for the youngest (11 weeks) and taking a picture with the oldest (91 years)...

Celebrating 4 generations...

and enjoying her new toy...a bumbo!

Rolling Over

2009-08-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

Claire rolled over!

Last night we were in the kitchen getting dinner ready and Trever set Claire on the her tummy on the floor and she almost instantly "rolled over". I told him it didn't count and that she actually fell over because of the way he put her down. He put her back on her tummy and spread her arms out so she could steady herself and wouldn't fall over. I started cutting up vegetables for dinner and when I turned around she was on her back!

Then, this morning, when I went to get her out of her crib, she was laying on her tummy and had shimmied herself towards one end of the bed! Last night I put her down on her back in the middle of the bed! She was such a happy baby this morning!

Claire has also been sleeping through the night ever night for the last couple of weeks. She goes down about 8:30 and sleeps until sometime between 5:30 and 6:30!

Claire is such a wonderful baby! She really is spoiling us!

Tonight we are meeting with the preacher about Claire's baptism. Tomorrow night Grandma Marge & Papa Wayne are coming to hang out with Claire while Trever and I go to a Young Ag Leaders outing. Saturday we have no plans and Sunday we are going to Bellflower for church and then to Bloomington for the Builta Reunion. We are so excited to share Claire with our extended family, and our church family!